Airdrop

An airdrop is a type of airlift in which items including weapons, equipment, humanitarian aid or leaflets are delivered by military or civilian aircraft without their landing.

As aircraft grew larger, the U.S. Air Force and Army developed low-level extraction, allowing vehicles like light tanks, armored personnel carriers and other large supplies to be delivered.

The 15,000-pound (6,800 kg) BLU-82, nicknamed the "Daisy Cutter" for its ability to turn a dense forest into a helicopter landing zone in a single blast, was used in the Vietnam War and more recently in Afghanistan.

During World War II, German bomber aircraft dropped containers called Versorgungsbomben (provisions bombs) to supply friendly troops on the ground.

During the Dutch famine of 1944-1945, British and American bombers dropped food on the Netherlands to feed civilians in danger of starvation; an agreement was made with Germany not to fire on the airdrop aircraft.